New Discourses convened in October of 2019 in the National Liberal Club of London for a day-long conference titled Speaking Truth to Social Justice. There, Portland State University philosophy professor Peter Boghossian gave a rousing talk about the need to “speak truth in the face of danger,” parrhesia, as the Ancient Greeks called it, as this applies to Critical Social Justice. Alongside Socrates, Dr. Boghossian draws on contemporary examples including Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the face by Islamist extremists for seeking an education while being a girl, and who survived this attack and bravely went on to become a global advocate for women and girls in education. He then explains the ways in which standing up to Critical Social Justice also requires speaking truth in the face of danger, though fortunately in a far less extreme and terrifying context.
Never content merely to talk about Theory in the abstract, Dr. Boghossian focuses his talk on providing a wide variety of useful and immediately practicable tools to engage in productive dialogue about any controversial or divisive topic, including Critical Social Justice. These, he draws from his book, co-authored with New Discourses founder and fellow conference speaker, Dr. James Lindsay, How to Have Impossible Conversations, which had just been released only weeks before.
Join Dr. Boghossian for this stirring talk and take his closing words to heart: join us in speaking up and resisting Critical Social Justice.
Watch additional presentations from this conference here.
The audio version of this presentation is available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora, or by RSS.
2 comments
This is a fabulous talk. I especially appreciate his 10 techniques to have impossible discussions.
I agree, but was the guy in the Portland restaurant actually a Nazi-sympathiser? I googled “Luftwaffe t-shirts” and they seem to me to be something I’d never want to wear in public.
Now, goes without saying that the owner of the restaurant (Jewish or not) is entirely right to defend the freedom of speech of its patrons, and certainly should not face a moral panic and an angry, retaliatory, mob hellbent at distroying his life or business.
But I’d like to know what one should do in the face of extreme ideological provocation (this applies equally to neo-nazis or the modern woke Taliban).
I once used to play a multi-player online game and one of the players (a history major) alerted the group that someone had chosen as their historical character’s call-name the surname of a very minor nazi official. We kicked the kid out of the team without hesitation.
I have medals of a grandfather who served in the German Navy in WW2. They bore the swastika, naturally. The past is complex, I don’t feel ashamed of the medals or the service of the young man who had to serve his country (and paid a heavy price for it). I am aware he had to take a Nazi oath (and better men refused at the cost of their lives), but he was no Nazi. So I won’t destroy the medals. But I am not going to put them up & display them either. And I am quite offended that neo-nazi’s collect them and wear them as ideological trophies. So would be my grandfather.
So you see, I am in two minds about young men casually wearing symbols of a very painful past in American diners. Sure, there might be 100% legitimate and innocent reasons to be a fan of the Luftwaffe. The RAF museum sells a lovely t-shirt featuring the Messerschmitt BF 109. But I want to be sure of the intentions of those who wear them first.